Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. – 2 Timothy 4:2
Life on the Race is pretty unpredictable. The majority of the time our team leaders try to get as much of a schedule from our ministry contact so this unpredictability is limited. But no matter how many questions our team leaders ask there are still surprises in ministry.
The first time this happened was in Bolivia.
We showed up for the final service for our time there. It was a Thursday night service. In our three works of working at this church, our teams had never been in charge of the Thursday night service so none of us were prepared for what awaited us that night. We arrived at church like normal, had our normal length song service, and then it happened.
The pastor looked at Mary Chandler and asked who was giving the message. She had to ask him to repeat himself because we were not prepared for this. She then turned to the 2 teams present and asked who was ready to preach. For about 30 seconds everybody was completely silent and was looking from one person to the next completely confused. Then as if on cue, everybody turned to me and said, “SARAH DOES!” I’m sitting there going, “SARAH DOESN’T!”
But with that many people saying I had a message, I stood and made my way to the front. They handed me the mic and I began speaking. I believe I preached on Ephesians 3:14-21. What exactly I said, I’m not sure. All I know is that I stood there praying for God to give me the words to say. After that night I prayed and asked God to give me a sermon or two so that I wouldn’t be caught without a sermon like that again. Over the next few days He gave me one.
So here I am in Colombia. We are once again working with a church. Last Saturday we went to a neighborhood park to work and play with the children from the community. The only part of the afternoon we were told we needed to prepare for was games. We were to go and play games with the kids for an hour and a half. So that was what we prepared for. We even made sure to ask multiple times to make sure games was all we needed to prepare for.
So we get to the park and and are playing games for the first hour….
AND THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN!
Kaysea comes up to me and says we need a 5 minute Bible lesson for the children. Mind you, we come to know this in the middle of a massive game of link tag. Not something I can just bow out of. So as I’m running around chasing kids and being chased by them, I am praying and asking God what I’m supposed to share with these kids. I don’t have my Bible with me or my journal. But God is faithful and once again provided the lesson. I gathered the children and we learned the 7 days of Creation. It was great.
These experiences have brought a whole new meaning to the verse mentioned at the beginning. “Be prepared in season and out of season.”
The reason my team continually says they look to me in these times is because I went to seminary. My only problem with this logic is that seminary did not prepare me to prep a message/lesson in a matter of 30 seconds…. Thankfully I serve a God who knows exactly what is supposed to be said and when.
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I am still about $2,000 short of being fully funded. If you would consider giving to help me reach my final deadline, I would be eternally grateful. Thank you all for the support you have already provided me both through prayer and financial means. Your support has been felt on the other side of the world and has made it possible for me to continue serving the nations each and every day.
